CHARLES
FRANKLIN SMITH was educated as a
sanitary engineer, but about eighteen years ago retired from that
profession and became an orange grower in the Redlands District. He is
one of the successful horticulturists of San Bernardino County and also
a citizen whose influence is constantly directed to the larger welfare
and prosperity of this section.

Mr. Smith represents a
prominent family and is a son of the late Brigadier General Franklin
Guest Smith, who had a distinguished career as an American soldier.
General Smith was born in Pennsylvania February 16, 1840, and died at
the City of Washington October 7, 1912. He was a son of Dr. Franklin R.
and Mary (Guest) Smith, his father being a physician. General Smith
graduated a civil engineer from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in
1859, and for a brief time was private secretary to the general
superintendent of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. In the spring of
1861 he was appointed private secretary to Major General George B.
McClellan, and in August of that year was appointed a second lieutenant
in the Fourth United States Artillery and subsequently as first
lieutenant served with the Army of the Cumberland until the close of the
war. He remained in the regular army, with promotions at regular
intervals, participated in Indian campaigns against the Sioux and
Cheyenne tribes, was in the campaign against the Apaches in 1881 and in
the spring of 1898 was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Sixth
Artillery and served as an artillery inspector in the Department of the
South. He was promoted to brigadier general in August, 1903, and the
following day was retired from active service. For a number of years he
was commissioner and secretary of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga
National Park Commission, and instrumental in planning that great
national cemetery. His own monument was erected there during his
lifetime as a tribute to his distinguished service. General Smith
married, February 8, 1866, Frances L. Dauchy, of Troy, New York. In 1881
he married Georgiana Dauchy of San Francisco. General Smith's uncle,
Charles E. Smith, was president of the Philadelphia & Reading
Railroad during the Civil war and led a most active life. T. Guilford
Smith, of Buffalo, New York, General Smith's first cousin, represented
the Carnegie Steel Company there, and his life is a matter of public
record.

A son of his father's first
marriage, Charles Franklin Smith, was born at Fort Canby, Washington
Territory, August 13, 1874. He was educated largely in the East, and
received his training as a sanitary engineer in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. In 1903 Mr. Smith came to California and
located at Crafton, where he bought a ten-acre orange grove on Citrus
Avenue. This has been his home ever since. He erected a modern home in
the midst of the many duties of this particular location, and besides
being a fruit grower he is active in business as a real estate man at
Redlands. Prior to coming to California he was employed by the Coast and
Geodetic Survey in Virginia, by the U. S. Engineers on the
fortifications in Portland, Maine, and by the New York Car Wheel Company
in Buffalo, New York. Since coming to Redlands he have been secretary of
the Crafton Orange Growers Association, president of the Crafton
Fumigation Association, associated with H. W. Hill, of Redlands,
California, in the Redlands Automobile Company and when this latter
business was sold he entered into the real estate business.

July 11, 1907, he married Miss
Marjorie Vail Fargo, who was born June 16, 1886, at Lake Mills,
Wisconsin, daughter of I. Latimer Fargo. Her father was an able scholar
and his great uncle was one of the founders of. Wells Fargo Express
Company. Miss Marjorie Fargo came to California with her parents in
1899. She completed her education in the exclusive Girls School at
Boston, conducted by Miss Church. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three sons:
Franklin Guest, born September 8, 1908; Latimer Fargo, born December 16,
1909; and Rodney Dauchy, born October 18, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are
members of the Episcopal Church, the Country Club, and both were
prominent in local war work. Mr. Smith organized and was president of
the local Rifle Club and also organized and was drill master of the Home
Guards. He has a button recognition of his skill as an expert rifleman.
During the late war he applied twice for military service, but owing to
a slight lameness was not accepted.

Source:
History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922,
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL